Secunia Blog

Secunia PSI: US PCs Have 2,720,800,000 Vulnerable Programs Installed!

16:37 CET, 24th June 2009 By Mikkel Winther.

The Secunia PSI 1.5 is a major release, which includes many new features, improvements, and changes that significantly improve the Secunia PSI. We recommend all Secunia PSI users to upgrade. Please read the full changelog for all new features and improvements in Secunia PSI 1.5.

Essential security starts with keeping your programs updated and plugging the holes used by criminals and malware, for years the best security offered to private users has been anti-virus programs and personal firewalls.

The Secunia PSI helps users plug all the security holes on their machine. A new feature in the Secunia PSI also advise the users about holes in browsers and the plug-ins used by the browsers. The Secure Browsing feature has been beta tested for a month, and the users are very positive about how it helps them stay secure and feel more comfortable and safe when they surf the net.

While anti-virus will detect many known attacks, they largely fail to detect new attacks, in particular attacks exploiting known security holes in software. By plugging the holes in your software you effectively thwart all these known attacks which criminals create using sophisticated exploit toolkits.

Thomas Kristensen, Secunia CTO, says; "Essential PC-security starts with updating your software and acting responsibly on the Internet, at this point no other solutions than the Secunia PSI helps the users updating third party software, Microsoft offers a similar solution but it only covers software from Microsoft.".

Going localAs part of Secunias commitment to help private users secure their systems, free-of-charge, we have asked the community to help translate the Secunia PSI into as many languages as possible. As of today the Secunia PSI is available in 16 languages and an additional 10 is currently being translated.

Want to translate the Secunia PSI? Read more.

Secure Browsing - inspect your browsersSecure Browsing is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of online security. If your favourite browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) or one of its plug-ins (like Flash Player, QuickTime, Java, etc.) are vulnerable, then you're exposed to attacks which can compromise your system without you knowing it, every single time you visit a website.

The Secunia PSI 1.5 offers a unique detailed insight into your browser and the programs and plugins, which expose you to attacks when you surf the Internet.

Secunia PSI WorldMap The Secunia PSI WorldMap shows the active users of the Secunia PSI all over the world – and their level of security, number of patched and unpatched programs etc. The information is interesting and fun to watch – but also quite terrifying, if you start putting a perspective on the information displayed: 1. In the US there are 227,000,000 Internet users. 2. Approximately 400,000 US based users got the Secunia PSI, they have an average of 4 unpatched programs. 3. The average non-PSI users in the US have 12 unpatched programs.

Facts:1. The Secunia PSI have helped patch more than 3 million insecure programs in the US alone2. In the US there are at least 2.7 billion vulnerable programs installed – remember; the criminals only need one unpatched program to compromise your machine!

PC USERS in the US alone HAVE 2,720,800,000 VULNERABLE PROGRAMS INSTALLED!

PSI Partner Manager, Mikkel Winther, comments "The fact that US based PC users have more than 2.7 billion vulnerable programs installed are shocking! And quite frankly I am very surprised, we had an idea it would be bad, but couldn't imagine the enormous scope of this problem. And to make things even worse, the picture formed in the US is the same all over the world. PC users need to patch! They need to patch all their vulnerable programs and they need to do so as fast as possible after the patch has been issued from the vendor. Failing to do so is playing Russian Roulette with your IT security – it is only a question about time – and luck – when your system will be compromised." He adds "The best solution is to have a program taking care of your patches and your vulnerabilities. Secunia Personal Software Inspector is the only tool that does this and since it is available for all private users for free, there is really "no excuse" not to patch."

The Secunia PSI Partner ProgramSecunia is offering a free Partner program where we will help all consumer oriented organisations, companies, and government bodies promoting and offering free on-line security to the users. The PSI partners program earn the privilege of being part of a global campaign to improve the security private PCs. Amongst the partners at this time are SANS, several national CERT institutions, national security campaign bodies, new partners join continuously!

For further information: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/psi_partner_program/

For years Secunia has stated that installing the latest security patches for your programs is just as important as having an anti-virus program and being behind a firewall, fact of the matter is, that it would be more accurate to say that "updating your programs and PC with the latest security updates is more important than having an anti-virus program and using a firewall."

Stay Secure,

Mikkel Winther PSI Partner Manager

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